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State roundup for August 30

HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu police have arrested a man suspected of firing a handgun as he was confronted after a road rage incident.

The man was being held on suspicion of terroristic threatening, reckless endangering and resisting arrest. No gun was recovered.

The events Wednesday followed a confrontation between a female driver and three motorcyclists on Highway H-3. The woman called two male relatives and they confronted the bikers in Waimanalo.

A fight broke out and police say a 21-year-old motorcyclist pulled out a handgun and fired shots into the ground just after 4 p.m. along Kalanianaole Highway.

Responding officers contacted the biker in traffic. He tried to ride around police cars and caused minor damage to two of them. He fled on foot but was arrested.

Leaking fuel tank washes up

LIHUE, Kauai (AP) — Emergency crews responded to examine the contents of a leaking fuel tank that washed up on a Kauai beach.

The aluminum tank washed up Wednesday on Waipouli Beach near the Courtyard by Marriott Kauai at Coconut Beach hotel, Kauai County spokeswoman Sarah Blane said.

“The container had approximately five gallons of a liquid inside,” she wrote in an email. “Caution tape was posted around the tank while HAZMAT crews investigated.”

Carl Berg, the Japanese tsunami marine debris coordinator for Surfrider Kauai, and Kauai District Fisheries Biologist Don Heacock were the first responders.

Japanese characters on the side of the tank and the large amount of marine growth led Berg to conclude the tank came from Japan after the 2011 tsunami.

Man gets jail in ‘South Park’ case

LIHUE, Kauai (AP) — A man who claimed he could not remember breaking into the home of “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker was sentenced Wednesday to a year in jail and five years’ probation.

Joseph Genaro Bonachita, 45, of Hanapepe, in May pleaded no contest to amended counts of misdemeanor criminal trespass and terroristic threatening plus illegally keeping a weapon in his vehicle.

He was sentenced in 5th Circuit Court to six-month sentences on the misdemeanor counts and probation for the weapons count.

Bonachita claimed he had been drinking and could not recall breaking into Parker’s home in Kapaa early on July 1, 2009. Judge Kathleen Watanabe told Bonachita that by blaming alcohol, he was deflecting accountability.

“I am telling you to your face that I don’t buy your story,” Watanabe said. “It is one of convenience.”

“It is appropriate that this defendant, who once held a position of trust and respect in our community, spend a significant period of time in jail,” Kollar said. “The residents who live in our neighborhoods deserve to be able to sleep soundly in their beds at night without having to worry about somebody breaking into their house and threatening them.”

The Garden Island (http://bit.ly/1a2UmFd) reports Bonachita entered the home and showed up at Parker’s bedroom with a knife.

Bonachita’s ex-girlfriend, Lauren Kagawa, a friend of Parker’s, was with Parker at the home. She yelled at the intruder until he left. Parker and Kagawa waited about 15 minutes to be sure Bonachita was gone, left the bedroom and called 911.

Bonachita afterward said he recalled waking up at a friend’s home in Koloa. His daughter called and said police were looking for him and he met officers at a gas station, where he was arrested. Police searched his vehicle and found knives, ammunition and a .22-caliber rifle he said he was returning to a friend.

County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Arin said witnesses reporting a man who looked like Bonachita’s in a truck near Parker’s home the afternoon before the break-in. An argument with Kagawa the day before and evidence collected show the crimes were calculated, she said.

The experience has made Parker continue to fear for his family’s safety, Arin said

Defense attorney Michael Soong said Bonachita stopped drinking three years ago. The incident at Parker’s house, he said, was dangerous but spontaneous and fueled by alcohol. Soong sought a sentence of up to 30 days in jail and probation.

Kagawa died about six weeks after the break-in on Aug. 17, 2009. She was found dead in her driveway from a combination of prescription medication and alcohol. Police concluded there was no foul play.

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